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35"37 



THE NEW HESPE RIDES 



JOEL ELIAS SPINGARN 








GopightN"_ii 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE NEW HESPERIDES 



THE NEW HESPERIDES 



AND OTHER POEMS 



BY 
JOEL ELIAS SPINGARN 



STURGIS & WALTON 

COMPANY 

1911 

All rights reserved 






Copyright 1911 
By Joel Elias Spingarn 



Set up and electrotyped. Published April, ign 



c 



Cf.A28674I 






TO MY MOTHER 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

PROTHALAMION: A BRIDAL HYMN . . i 

THE NEW HESPERIDES n 

IL CORTEGIANO 30 

THE NEW PALACE OF ART 33 

YOUNG LOVE: 

A Dedication 37 

Spring Passion 39 

Italian Poppies 43 

The Light-House Bridge 44 

Love's Wisdom 46 

A Dream of Rose Gardens 47 

THE POET 56 

O MEN AND WOMEN, BEAUTIFUL AND 

GAY 57 

THE ALKAHEST 59 



THE NEW HESPERIDES 



PROTHALAMION 

Oh, dawn that ushers in the bridal day, 

And with the twiHght brings the bridal joy, 

Yours is the torch that once would light the way 

Of that fair pagan boy, 

Who guided hearts, and married their delight. 

And closed the portals on the nuptial night; 

No more he comes, all winged with desire, 

And flambeau burning bright; 

No more he brings his unawakened lyre. 

And makes the strings dance to the blowing 

breeze ; 
No more his careless heart is set on fire 
In bower after bower of amorous ease. 



PROTHALAMION 
Long years ago, when on the Syrian hills 
A glory shone, and all the world grew light. 
Ours was the day, and his the endless night; 
We left him dreaming on Hymettits mount, 
Where murmur of the bees his slumber fills, 
And all the bubbling rills; 
The honey stolen from the wilding hive 
Clings to the dryad's lip; he dreams it sweet, 
And her fond kisses keep his hope alive. 
But waking finds the sun upon the plain, 
With all the world in combat at his feet, 
And all his vassals fallen from his train. 

No more we follow where his torches led, 
No more we listen to his careless song; 
Our hopes are high, and his dominion dead; 
The graven tablets that undid this wrong, 



PROTHALAMION 
The holy heart that made the whole world hear, 
Have taught us wisdom; and with wings of fire, 
We can outsoar his torches, burnt too bright; 
We have unfettered love from her old fear, 
Like some enchanted sprite 
That has escaped the caverns of desire; 
Oh, bridal dawn, your light is not his light! 

And you, twin souls, who on this happy day 
Have married hearts, and mingled the two 

streams 
Of your own fates in this more perfect way, 
Behold the bright girl April's dancing eyes 
Grow brighter with your dreams; 
She sets the sun 'mid showers in the skies, 
To mock your tender tears; and on the hills. 
Thro' the dank earth, wrapped in her curling 

leaf. 



P R O T H A L A .M 1 O N 
The bloodroot flower forgets her winter's grief, 
In longing for your bridal ; ]\Iay-time brings 
Arbutus and anemone, and fills 
The woods with perfume, but the x\pril sun 
Holds court in heaven, and the robin sings 
Full-hearted carols when the bride is won. 

Oh, lady, weeping at your own delight, — 

A happy sorrow mellowing your tear, — 

The plighted day, the consecrated night. 

The honeyed month, the slow-revolving year. 

Are yours and his by right ; 

Oh, guiding star of his unsundered fate. 

Thro' life and death, thro' hopes that cannot die. 

Keep his strong heart elate ; 

Be pilot of your yet unweathered bark, 

Faithful to that bright planet in the sky. 

Thro' reaches of the far mysterious dark. 

4 



PROTHALAMION 
Oh, happy youth, bringing the bride-heart home, 
To seal with nuptial rapture her sweet fate, 
From out of highest heaven's awful dome 
You were ordained to mate, — 
Twin passions of a single hallowed heart, 
Who join the sweet and strong with perfect art, 
And marry good with great; 
No mystic portent, and no elfin power. 
Rouse your desire in watches of the night, 
Nor fair Armida of the blissful bower; 
Her deepest magic is her womanhood; 
But thro' the shadows of our earthly wood. 
Follow your star that makes the heaven bright. 

Not here within the bridal clasp of hands. 
But in the Eden of your highest hope. 
The perfect future stands; 

5 



PROTHALAMION 
You do foretoken that diviner day 
We eat our hearts in praying for, and grope 
Thro' shadows on the never-ending way ; 
The goal is far, but earth and heaven the prize ; 
On this bright dawn let us forget our fears. 
And yield to every hope your nuptials rouse; 
For echoing Sinai, Nazareth is wise, 
And all the heartache of the grinding years 
Is buried in your deathless marriage vows. 

So sang the wood-thrush throbbing in my brain. 

But the blithe robin dancing in my heart 

Carols a softer strain; 

No time is this for peril or for pain, 

When bright-eyed April plays her happiest part. 

Smiling thro' dewy lashes; no time this, 

When youth meets youth, and bridegroom takes 
his bride, 

6 



PROTHALAMION 
And love and living seem a single bliss ; 
Oh, rapture in the twilight clasp of arms, 
Oh, melody, oh, joy of virgin charms, 
Youth and the young year budding side by side, 
Make all Spring's flov^ers blossom in your kiss ! 



7 



THE NEW HESPERIDES 



THE NEW HESPERIDES 

AN AMERICAN ODE 
I 

Oh, rich in hope, and dowered with happiness, 
Child of the past, and mother of us all, 
I come to pluck a blossom from the tree 
Whose seeds were nurtured in the cloistered 

hall ; 
I come to garner from thy many flowers 
The nursling of thy tenderest caress ; 
I come, and here I consecrate to thee 
The treasure sought in thy sequestered bowers. 
Myself in thyself, and thyself in me; 
Here at the threshold of our new-world dream, 
Hope of the East in her unhapplest hours, 

II 



THE NEW HESPERIDES 
I fain once more would light the Arcadian 

gleam, 
And follow out the foot-prints of the quest 
That thro' thy gateway haunts the golden West ; 
I would unfold the ceaseless whispering 
That lured men's hearts to seek a perfect land, 
Thro' infinite to-morrows, following light, 
Until ourselves had found it close at hand; 
But Summer drowsily knocking at the door 
Bids me be silent, and the passion of Spring 
Freights the young bosom; in this glimmering 

clime. 
How shall you bear the clangor of my rhyme. 
And hear the world-old tale repeated o'er? 
For heart and heaven once again in tune 
Make reason seem unreason; oh, forget 
The multitudinous voices calling, " June, 

12 



THE NEW HESPERIDES 
June, our sweet month of ever cloudless dreams, 
Hath come at last, hath come at last, and set 
The jewel-weed aflame beside the streams, 
The columbine to dare the rock-bound height, 
And in the woods a thousand brighter gleams " ; 
Forget the haunted glade, the tangled brake. 
Hiding the orchid, and the lilied lake, 
Rich in its myriad stars ; — forget all these, 
Tho' memories of their murmurs haunt our air, 
And follow me to mild ^Egean seas. 
Where first the vision showered forth its light; 
There lovelier fruit it made the orchards bear. 
And wilding dreams gave to a dreamless earth. 
Where pleasure trembles on the brink of pain, 
Where hope mocks hope, and death, foredoomed 
at birth. 



13 



THE NEW HESPERIDES 
Haunts our delight or smiles at our disdain ; 
Where love is anguish, faith a sanguine stain, 
And friend and foe but obverse and reverse 
Of one base coinage; there the golden gleam 
Lit the young earth, and mountain-side and 

stream, 
Ocean and meadow, understood the sign; 
So everywhere it shone, some happy hand 
Built it an altar, sanctified a shrine, 
For incense fed with this the youngest dream 
Of worlds enfranchised from the primal curse. 
The deathless vision of the perfect land. 

II 
In the lone valleys of a Western isle, 
Beyond the venturous reach of Grecian sail, 
A mortal maid had won Poseidon's smile; 

14 



THE NEW HESPERIDES 
The estranging sea enclosed her quiet vale, 
And there, love's willing prisoner, she reared 
Heroic offspring; by their mother borne, 
And subject to the heritage of pain, 
In them a flitting godhead still appeared, 
Not knowing human labors ; so their sire 
Made of their isle a marvellous domain 
Of plant and herb, and leagues of smiling corn, 
Untilled, unploughed, but ever plentiful; 
He gave them food that needed not the fire, 
Built palaces that never could decay, 
Or moulder into ruins; there the bees 
Gave willingly their sweets, and sheep their 

wool. 
For warmth at eve and honeyed mouths at day ; 
There fruit and harvest in the mellow breeze, 



15 



THE NEW HESPERIDES 
And kisses of a mild, luxurious sun, 
Found their rich ripening; in this fairest clime, 
Where pleasure waited, willing to be won, 
He made them and their offspring for all time 
Devoid of toil, and doomed to count the hours 
By lily-languors, and the hollow years 
By changeless mood and lotos-eating rest, — 
A fitting home for all the immortal powers, 
But not for men from mortal mother sprung. 
And born to the vain happiness of tears. 
Time held her hours imprisoned in a cage, 
Like young birds longing for the wildwood nest ; 
The ripening fruit still to the branches clung, 
The oarless sea lost all its quickening zest; 
For hearts were weary, and they longed to wage 
Fierce struggles with themselves and all the 
world ; 

i6 



THE NEW HESPERIDES 
Till the immortal, seeing all was vain. 
And sickening of their futile frenzies, hurled 
Their isle to atoms, and the people grope 
Forever in the immemorial main. 
Here were indeed an Island of the Blest, 
Which Plato's dream, and orient human hope, 
Reared in the golden West; 
But what avails the fairest-hued young vision. 
Arcadian or Elysian, 

If summer bark should venture winter weather, 
And heart and hope be mated not together? 
Dreams are for dreamers, toil for human hands ; 
And he who seeks shall find, shall surely find, 
The only perfect lands. 



17 



THE NEW HESPERIDES 

III 
No longer can the clouded hope disguise 
The dreamer's heritage to the daedal mind; 
Oh, evermore beneath the open skies, 
The hallowed shimmer on mysterious strands, 

« 

The undying vision and the ceaseless quest. 

Shall haunt the windy world, and all men's eyes 

Burn with the sun toward the wondrous West. 

Some seek the mellow fruit whose blossoms 

flame 

Hesperidean gardens ; others dare 

The wilder seas that knew no charted name, 

Bound for Saturnian continents, and fare 

Thro' tempest to the Fortunate Isles of fame. 

Forever seeking what they could not find. 

Forever finding what they did not seek; 

And when Olympus, silent in its shame 

i8 



THE NEW HESPERIDES 
At sight of Delphi closed and Sibyls blind, 
Heard heaven thunder and the one God speak, 
The vision found new ardors, and the quest 
Sent purer spirits ever farther West: 
As when St. Malo, in his hermit cell, 
Heart-weary of the changeless day and night, 
Prayers ever faithful to the chapel bell, 
And human deed forswearing human right, 
On mouldy legends of his pagan home 
Fed all his dreaming hours, — Fields of Delight, 
The Isle of Heroes, Avalon, and Mag Mell, — 
Until he yearned to burst the bonds, and roam 
To find his dream, and reach the perfect isle, 
Where freedom's fetterless wings could never 

tire, 
And nature's law chimed with the heart's desire. 
Stout-sinewed mariners manned his coracle, 

19 



THE NEW HESPERIDES 
And thro' the waste they covered mile on mile, 
Saw many marvels, many a giant race, 
Enchanted realms, but not the perfect place. 
Wearier and wearier grew his men, and he 
Doubted the vision ; in the tossing night. 
Sick of the hope that would not let him be, 
He slept, and to his fitful slumbers came 
A radiant spirit garmented in flame. 
And said to him : *' What hast thou sought, and 

where ? 
Vain is the quest that over land and sea 
Seeks the Eternal; He is here and there; 
In every virtuous heart He builds His shrine. 
And all pure thoughts climb the wide altar-stair ; 
lYet if thou seekest for the perfect place, 
Not here His kingdom; but by pious prayer 
And noble thought to noble action wed, 

20 



THE NEW HESPERIDES 
Before His throne on the great judgment day 
It may be thou shalt meet Him face to face." 
Then waking from his dream, St. Malo said, 
" Seven weary years and fruitless have been 

mme ! 
And turning eastward, swiftly took his way 
To that lone cell the angel called divine. 

Angel of light and being without spot, 
Well mayest thou smile at our imperfect earth, 
The orbit of our unillumined lot, 
Who in thy higher realm hast bodied forth 
The visible pageantry of quenchless light; 
For there His kingdom ever must endure. 
And where His kingdom is not, there is night; 
Whilst here the canker gnawing at the rose 
Blights the young bud of truth, and all the fruit 
Is buried in the drift of winter snows; 

21 



THE NEW HESPERIDES 
But truth outlasts her wild December hours, 
For Spring finds Summer trembling in the root, 
And the March mists are melting into flowers ; 
A fairer music ever waits the lute, 
And every rising sun helps us to chart 
New El Dorados, year by year to mine 
New Calif ornias in the golden heart. 
And win new Edens in the deed divine ; 
Infinite toil is yet to overwhelm. 
Ere our poor earth is worthy of His realm; 
But His the promise, His the glory be. 
And here at last, before the years are done. 
Our infinite hope and infinite faith may see 
His earthly kingdom won. 



22 



THE NEW HESPERIDES 

IV 

Once more the vision whispered in the trees 

Her portents, calling sturdy hearts to seek 

Travail and turmoil nothing could appease, — 

To dare the dizzy starlight of the peak, 

Or fairy foam of far mysterious seas: 

The wide earth beckoned ; everywhere the gleam 

Guided the helm thro' stormy night and day, 

For all the world was brooding on the dream; 

Farther and farther did they race the breeze, 

Whither they knew not, wherefore who could 

say? 

Until there came the marvellous Genoese, 

Who carried a new world in his own heart 

For twenty bitter years, till he at last 

Found fitting home for the Hesperides, 

And the dream planted on the sailor's chart: 

23 



THE NEW HESPERIDES 
Not silken splendor of the East, nor gold 
From Himalayan hills, nor loaded ships, 
The famed mariner found; but from the vast 
The primal shadows sullenly unrolled, 
And his bright torch turned light on the eclipse. 
New world, new quest; and thither many 

flocked, 
To find the realms of hope, but doomed to sleep 
Forever in the lonely glen, or rocked. 
Like idle wreckage, on the charnel deep; 
And there, far off, the wildernesses called, 
With siren music and the siren smile. 
To hardier spirits, and they sought, enthralled. 
The spires of Norumbega, or the gold 
Of El Dorado, or St. Brandan's Isle, 
Or marvels that the Seven Cities hold; 
But nobler natures, careless of the guile 

24 



THE NEW HESPERIDES 
And lust of treasure, threw the dice with death. 
And lost or won ; but ever in the quest, 
Like some swift sea-bird never needing rest, 
Following perfervid in the wake of truth, 
The vision's inextinguishable breath 
Fanned the bright flame of hope; thro* deep 

morass. 
Thro' ivy-tangles and magnolia-bloom. 
The soldier Ponce de Leon longed to pass. 
To find the Fountain of Eternal Youth: 
Not there he gained, nor in strange Yucatan 

(Where Cortez dared the Aztec gods), nor 

where 
De Soto found his glorious river-doom. 

What must be sought within the heart of man. 

Many there followed, searching for the height 

Shimmering with trophies of victorious deeds, 

25 



THE NEW HESPERIDES 
But overlooking flowers and finding weeds ; 
They bartered treasure for the golden gleam, 
Sowing the dawn to reap the endless night, 
And for a mess of pottage sold the dream; 
Seedsmen of discord and an inward doom. 
Pirates and plunderers and buccaneers, 
With gold they cheapened beauty's roseate bloom ; 
For what avails the fairest-hued young vision, 
Arcadian or Elysian, 

If the young lover should forget his tryst. 
And for the maid, unworthy lips had kissed? 
Oh, he might seek it in the East or West, 
Dive for it, soar for it on distant strand; 
Only the seeker worthy of the quest 
Shall find the perfect land. 



26 



THE NEW HESPERIDES 

Y 

O country that Columbus sought in vain, 

And seeking thee De Leon found no peace, 

For us they left the dream to reap, and gain 

A fairer Golden Fleece ; 

For us they left the unascended heights. 

And in our lives to light the eternal fires, 

Like pinnacled stars of unimagined nights ; 

For us they left these more than Fortunate Isles, 

Found in the highest heaven of our desires, 

And guarded round with nature's sweetest 

smiles ; — 

Oh, dearest land, that deep in Lincoln's heart, 

In Franklin's brain, and in the righteous sword 

Of Washington, hast reared thine eagle's-nest, 

And in their fame thy greater glory stored, 

Kindling the light that never can depart, — 

27 



THE NEW HESPERIDES 
In that high citadel within the mind, 
Whose masonry outlasts the baser hand, 
They built a realm we daily hope to find : 
To live the vision is the perfect land, 
And from all corners of our happy West, 
From Shasta to the Southern gulf, it thrills 
Prairie and peak with promise of new dawn ; 
Nor all the treasure hoarded in our hills, 
Nor all the metals moulded by our hands. 
Nor thundering beat of more than human brawn 
From out the glowing furnace, nor the ships 
Unloading all our toil in distant lands, 
That star of higher glory can eclipse ; 
True to ourselves, true to the dream, and true 
To the sweet stars emblazoned in the blue. 
Oh, who can tell the harvest we shall reap, 
Who sow as seeds the truths that never sleep, 

28 



THE NEW HESPERIDES 
Daring the future? Not for us to solve 
The unreasoning reason of superfluous woe, 
Death, and the mystery of our sins and hates, 
That hold the heart of starry faith aglow ; 
But Time to conquer, and unequal fates 
To equalize in their supreme resolve, 
Thro' the slow changes of unchanging time: 
All the great nations shaped themselves for this, 
All the great battles fought for this one cry. 
All the great heroes died for this one bliss ; — 
O lovely Eden, panting in the sway 
That freedom gives, grow mightier with its pow- 
ers. 
And prove thy heroes did not die in vain, 
•In the mere turmoil of insurgent hours ; 
For now at last the world is man's to gain, 
And all our hopes foresee that happier day 

When man with God shall in one godhead reign. 

29 



IL CORTEGIANO 

Nestling in the valley, with her plumage 
As of old a-sparkle, sleeps Urbino : 
Steam has borne you past her, while you won- 
dered 
Whether aught could rouse her from her slum- 
bers, 
Since the days her Raphael woke to beauty. 
Here, amid the heartache of our hurry, 
Fancy bore me to her Umbrian almonds ; • — 
From a volume, bound in richest vellum. 
Dusk with age, and stamped with quaint devices. 
Came a flutter of her ancient fragrance, 
Lisped in speech the drip of Tuscan honey. 
Sprightly ladies like Emilia Pia, 

Swarthy heroes like the young Fregoso, 

30 



IL CORTEGIANO 
Shine and sparkle in the glittering pages. 
In the shimmering lists of joust and tourney, 
In the honeyed dalliance of fair ladies, 
Prince and Courtier reap the fruits of knight- 
hood. 
Oh, the rose bloom, robbed of all her fragrance, 
Oh, the laurel, hidden in men's bosoms, 
Did not thrive for baser hearts to pluck them. 
** Tell me, dear, what is the perfect Courtier? " — 
" Watch me dare the hollow world for chal- 
lenge!"— 
"What is Love?"— "A million of my kisses!" 

So they laughed and danced, and so they jousted, 
Played with Death to give them courtly graces, 
Finding Life no wider than the tiltyard, 
Finding Death no colder than the coffin ! 

31 



isaaJoa^iOia 



IL CORTEGIANO 
Not for us with hungry hearts to chide them, 
Seeing more in Hfe than courtly graces, 
Seeing more in death than crumbling pine-wood ; 
Ah, for us Columbus found new islands 
Galileo found new stars in heaven, 
And Magellan all the Earth encircled ; 
Ah, for us the throbbing heart of Bruno 
Found a higher mind than mind can fathom. 
And a thousand poets found new manhood ! 
All for us they lit up land and water. 
All for us they thrilled both prince and people. 
And the light of courts went out forever. 



3^ 



THE NEW PALACE OF ART 

Out of the stars, sweet stars, the stars of peace. 
The Lord coins rainbows and the golden fleece; 
And out of Hfe, the core of human riches, 
He fashions beggars to be thrown in ditches. 

What hope for us if, panoplied in stars, 
He smiles with pity at the beggars' scars? 
Beauty, forever sheltered, casts her spell 
Beyond the grasp of staggerers in hell. 

Beauty and pain, our interwoven life. 
Woman and man, but never man and wife, — 
The one must be a beggar in the street 
Ere that fair other shall have bread to eat. 

33 



— -~ V-. -■ .^ -■■ - - ^u.. - - ■ •— - ■--- ■^-■•^ -' "•- — -■- -^■■~.~.'-- -- -)ifc^ I -» 1 mi 



THE NEW PALACE OF ART 
For none but starvelings of the world can feed 
Her lotos lips; she lives v^hile millions bleed; 
'Tis the dread curse of beauty, which must live 
Only on gifts that agony can give ! 

Leisure she craves, — and straightway men must 

sweat ; 
Clean hand and house, — and myriad eyes are 

wet 
With all the aching toil of her commands, 
Scouring her mansions and her lily hands. 

I find no pleasure in her lovely face ; 
I find no quiet in her dwelling place. 
But pain, lust, agonies, the old-world cry : 
We shall not enter Eden till she die. 



34 



YOUNG LOVE 



A DEDICATION 
(1900) 

Up to your starry heights I send 

These trembling rhymes; if they abide 
A moment on the way they wend, 

To share high heaven at your side, 
Oh, take them where you brighten suns 

And planets with your radiant smile, 
And in that convent of God's nuns, 

Feed them cool kisses for a while ; 
Else drunk with dreaming of your face, 

They hate the brain that gave them birth 
But cannot take them to the place 

Where you shower starlight on poor earth; 



37 



A DEDICATION 
Oh, pity me ! oh, pity them ! — 

Your nursHngs coming home to take 
Star-jewels from the diadem 

You carved in glory for their sake; 
But if, before your face, they prove 

Unworthy of the crown, be sure 
To make them lovely with your love, 

And in your pureness make them pure. 



38 



SPRING PASSION 
I 

When blue-eyed April, melting into May, 

Makes her frail flowers outvie the stars of night. 

And starry eve outshine the v^ilding day ; 

When the young year, from snowy prisons free. 

Finds in her youth the fount of her (ielight, 

And shows high heaven how lovely earth may be.; 

When hearts, like hillside blossoms, burst in 

flower, 

And time to beauty's worship consecrate; 

When passion of spring is pilot of the hour. 

And in herself the law of human fate ; 

Then did the flickering light of windy woods 

Haunt my young brain ; then did the changeful 

sky, 

39 



SPRING PASSION 
And violet banks, where, rich with scent of May, 
The brook leaps over pebbles, bubbling by, 
Hold fitful mastery over my wild moods ; 
Oh, how I hated the dull working day. 
Oh, how I fretted in the studious night. 
Envied the honey-heavy whirl of bees. 
Or the glad thrushes, rippling their delight 
To the mild dryads slumbering in the trees. 

So on the banks of an o'ershadowed stream, 
I crushed the violets unwillingly. 
And Pleiads of the wood lit up my dream : 
Bluebell, arbutus, stars that never set. 
First-born hepatica, anemone. 
Spring-beauty, columbine, and violet. 
There, lullabied by bobolink and thrush. 
Drowsy with myriad silences of May, 

40 



SPRING PASSION 
Once more I dreamt that trembling sigh and 

blush 
Still speak her thoughts, and our sweet parting 

tears 
Banish again the doubts of night and day. 
For I am sick of nourishing my fears, 
And sick of crushing hopes that cannot be : 
I will drink in this beauty and be free ! 
Come to my heart, arbutus ; bobolink, 
Tell the wild brook the story of your love, 
And I will sit here quietly and think : 

II 

" Blue sky, green fields, and lazy yellow sun ! 

Why should I hunger for the burning South, 

Where beauty needs no travail to be won, 

Now I may kiss her pure impassioned mouth? 

41 



SPRING PASSION 
Winds rippling with the rich delight of spring! 

Why should I yearn for myriad-colored skies, 
Lit by auroral suns, when I may sing 

The flame and rapture of her starry eyes ? 

Oh, song of birds, and flowers fair to see ! 

Why should I thirst for far-off Eden-isles, 
When I may hear her discourse melody, 

And bask, a dreamer, in her dreamy smiles ? " 



42 



ITALIAN POPPIES 

Wherever on Italian ground, 

Carried by whim, I chance to go, 
The poppy follows me around 

Palace and pasture, high and low. 
Rich in her red, she decks my heart 

Like her own meadows ; sick of soul, 
I watch the whirl of crowded art. 

Till her pure passion makes me whole. 

O simple flower, you speak the tongue 
That tear-drops answer ; North and South, 

The lips of lovers as they clung, 

Spake your sweet language, mouth to mouth 

Francesca, ere she found her doom, 
Planted you on Paolo's lips ; 

And Roman Antony saw you bloom. 

Flaming, on Cleopatra's ships. 

43 



THE LIGHT-HOUSE BRIDGE 

There where the slender walk half bridged the 
bay, 
That trembled with the weight of shadowed 
stars, 
Where, over wastes of waters far away, 

The light-house gleam stretched forth her yel- 
low bars, 
And all of earth and heaven seemed asleep, — 

There were the bower for our new-found bliss, 
And there I sought, beside the breathless deep, 
A home for our first kiss. 

Did you not see that all the stars above 

Welcomed my tremulous hope? Could you 
not know 

44 



THE LIGHT-HOUSE BRIDGE 
That here were found a cradle fit for love, 

Where the young god, bathed in the starlight 
glow, 
And nursed by summer winds, might gather 
power, 
Outliving doubt, suspicion, and despair? 
Here might have trembled Danae's golden shower. 
When all the world was fair. 

But love sheathed all his arrows. The shy moon 

Veiled her wan face in clouds, and, high above, 
The stars in chorus begged you for the boon. 

And sky and air were singing of our love ; 
Yet did your look deny me your sweet lips ; 

And in this shrine our hearts might consecrate, 
Love, shivering in the darkness of eclipse, 

Clung to the skirts of fate. 

45 



LOVE'S WISDOM 

Was I not born for other things than this : 
To dream within the shadows of my room, 
To waste my youthful heart in studious gloom, 

And in the weary past the present miss? 

Was I not born to taste of deeper bliss 
Than blinding eyes in poring over books, 
When I had rather feed on woman's looks, 

And sob my soul out in a single kiss? 

No, mine astronomy, your deep-set eyes, 

And your rich voice, my Latin and my Greek, 

And your dear love, my sole philosophy, 
Scholar and sage might revolutionize : 

In you all language, learning, wisdom be, 

And all the ancients listen when you speak. 

46 



A DREAM OF ROSE GARDENS 
I 

One evening, while my lips were warm and sweet 

With the beloved's kiss, low at her feet 

I rested, reading my Jelaleddin. 

Strange phrases and strange thoughts I found 

therein, 
And when I fell asleep, strange was my dream. 

I dreamt my love once took me by the hand, 
And led me, thro' vague paths in dreamer's land, 
To a dim, sweet rose-garden far away. 
The dew had vanished from the eyes of day. 
Save where a tear-drop glistened on a rose, 
Or hid in fragile petals, like the snows 

47 



A DREAM OF ROSE GARDENS 
That nestle in some sheltered spot in Spring. 
High on the tree-tops birds were fluttering, 
And the beloved whispered, '' Let us rest, 
Here in the shadow of the wildwood nest. 
And listen to the warbling of the bird." 
So we lay down, nor spake I any word — 
For in my dream I seemed all powerless, 
Even when strengthened by my love's caress. 
To utter all that moved me — so we lay, 
Lay and dreamt idly. From the mossy bower 
The bird sang to us in that bridal hour. 
And we lay there and listened. 

Heart, O heart, 

Seek you the friend, seek you the friend, the 

friend, 

Seek you the friend, it caroled ; play your part 

No longer; think no more of zvhat you are. 

48 



A DREAM OF ROSE GARDENS 
Seek you the Eternal, dreamer? ^ Have you tried 
To satisfy the never-satisfied f 
Have you too dreamt of joy without an end? 
Have you too hungered after sun and star? 
Seek you the blessed? Go where none have trod. 
Seek you the friend? Forget all that you are. 
Seek you the Eternal? Forget yourself; be God! 

The song was hushed a moment. Oh, the pain, 
The longing ! Then the bird began again : 

Seek you the friend? Then dream no more of 

sin, 
Of sorrow, faith. Forget you ever tried 
To satisfy the never-satisfied. 
Forget yourself, and hear Jeldleddin; 
Forget yourself, and be as I have been. 

49 



A DREAM OF ROSE GARDENS 
Embrace the fool, when he too is a fool, 
As we are — yea, and go with him to school 
In the gay tavern, drinking ruby wine. 
Go to the tavern careless of all grief; 
Taste there of beauty, and regard no more 
The fable of Belief and Unbelief. 
Dreamer, O dreamer, know the true divine: 
Wine is the first, the last, the golden door 
To knoidedge — the knowledge that brings joy 

and peace. 
There is no longing, no unrest, no strife, — 
Only delight, and songs that never cease ; 
Rather the zvine-glass than men's bitter lore, 
Rather the zvine-glass than eternal life. 

Silence a moment in my dream ; but she 

Glanced at me for a second tenderly, 

Ah, tender but deep troubled. " No, not here," 

so 



A DREAM OF ROSE GARDENS 
I heard her say ; " here find we little cheer 
Let us go further." So we rose and went 
On thro' dream regions of sweet languishment, 
Far, far away. What had the strange song 

meant ? 
Why was I ever humming o'er and o'er : 
" Taste there of beauty, and regard no more 
The fable of Belief and Unbelief? " 
Why was I troubled as with unknown grief ? 
Why should I dream : " Forget you ever tried 
To satisfy the never-satisfied " ? 

II 

But on we went — she ever at my side, 

She, the beloved, whispering comfort sweet: 

'' Not here, not here, tho' pearls were at our feet ; 

Not here, not here," the dream beloved said. 

So she led on, I following where she led, 

SI 



A DREAM OF ROSE GARDENS 
Until we came unto another bower, 
Hard by a mountain stream. The evening hour 
Was ushered in by Vesper overhead. 
" Let us He here and rest awhile/' she said ; 
So we lay down and rested, while a thrush, 
From out a neighboring thicket, made us hush, 
Singing its song of evening : 

Evening star, 
Know you what song is — what the song I sing? 
Know you what song is, dreamer that you are, 
Dreamer and your beloved f When I bring 
Dim harmonies from the revolving spheres. 
Like fragrance from the fading flowers of dusk, 
Sing I the song, or am I one who hears 
Sweet music elsewhere, and but hums it oer? 
Does he create the musk-deer who makes miiskf 

52 



A DREAM OF ROSE GARDENS 
Do I make music tho' my singing soar? 
Ah, zvhat is song, drcamerf Know you this? 
"Ah, tell me what is song, evening star. 

I waited for the answer, and my sighs 
Brought comfort from the sweet beloved eyes : 
" Be of good cheer," they said ; " be of good 

cheer, 
The evening star will answer." So we lay 
Waiting, as shipwrecked sailors wait for day. 
And then the fateful star: 

Oh, zvhat is song. 
Bird of the tzvilight, and you dreamers two, 
lover and helovedf Who belong 
To the enchanted realms that poets do? 
Oh, listen then, and he as one who is 

53 



A DREAM OF ROSE GARDENS 
All things in being nothing; song is this: 
To answer God with an eternal yes; 
To Und the deathless in the thing that dies; 
To find a heaven here — yea, with soul's eyes. 
And fake delight in it — gain happiness 
By self-annihilation ; on love's path 
To sacrifice for love all that man hath. 
Oh, do these things, and sing! 

Then once again 
She took me by the hand, as if in pain, 
And led me on. " Not here, O love, not here ; 
Here is no sweet fulfillment, and no cheer 
For us who look for counsel. Happiness 
By self-annihilation? I fear me — yes, 
We must seek elsewhere for our bridal bower." 
And I — what dreamt I in that sad, sweet hour ? 

54 



A DREAM OF ROSE GARDENS 
Should I find happiness in ruby wine 
Or in self-sacrifice — find the divine 
In tavern or in eremitic cell? 
I knew no answer, but she knew full well, 
And in her eyes I found It — heard it tell, 
Love, love, O love! And star, and bird, and 

flower, 
Sang bridal hymns in that triumphant hour. 
Love, love, O love! In thee will I grow strong. 



S5 



THE POET 

I HAVE not gathered these dreams out of the read- 
ing of books; 
They came to me, flowers of dusk, sweet with 
the odor of stars; 
Some of them Hve not a day out of their shadowy 
nooks ; 
Some of them still show the touch where my 
fingers bruised them with scars. 



S6 



O MEN AND WOMEN, BEAUTIFUL AND 

GAY 

O MEN and women, beautiful and gay, 
Gay as the sunshine, beautiful as dawn. 
Who love the bloom, forget the blossom gone. 

Sing with the sunlight, dance the night away, — 

What can you know of feeding vigils gray 

With fuel of vain longing? How should you. 
For whose bright bloom your own heart brings 
its dew, 

Taste of the gall hid in the flower of day? 

But I, oh, I have nourished, all apart, 
Flowers of passion with my biting tears ; 
Oh, I have fanned the ashes of despair 



57 



O MEN AND WOMEN 
With all the sighs of these my passionate years ; 
Yea, I have gnawed the heart of night and 
care, 
To keep myself from gnawing mine own heart. 



58 



THE ALKAHEST 
(On Brooklyn Bridge) 

Great harbor of the world ! to your domain 
Vast hordes of men from regions wild and rude 
Come flocking after freedom, — all the brood 

Of Afric desert and Siberian plain, 

Of citied Italy and haughty Spain, 

England, France, Russia, — mountain, marsh- 
land, wood. 
Lake, city, hamlet, — so our people should 

Build mightier Rome and lovelier Greece again. 

This is the land, and here the centuried quest 
Surges in wonder ; and the great world sees 
The course of things that scramble on apace, 

59 



THE ALKAHEST 
Made plain and holy, and the mysteries 
Of law and inequality and race 
Solved in the splendor of our alkahest. 



6q 



NOTE 

Of the poems in this volume, some have al- 
ready appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, East 
and West, and The Morningside. The Nezv 
Hesperides was read before the Society of Phi 
Beta Kappa at Columbia University on June ii, 
1901, and was privately printed by the Society 
for distribution among its members. 



May 



I9jf 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



MAY 8 m^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




